I am really struggling! Help?!

[manicprime]

I've been playing FM and games of the kind since 2007 and enjoyed a moderate amount of success, league titles, champions leagues, promotions etc, but I just cannot fathom this year's release. I am currently on my 4th game attempt. Having tried campaigns with QPR, Liverpool and Newcastle, I am now with Arsenal. I'll give you a bit of background to my situation. I am currently 9th in the league at the start of January, only about 6 points off 4th.
Jovetic has been out since the first couple of games and is still a long term absence. My problem is, sometimes my team plays very well, lots of possession, lots of chances, lots of goals, lots of points. Other times the possession will be great but I wont create any chances, other times I'll get destroyed by teams who realistically have no chance, for example, I beat Fulham 2-0 at home, only to lose 3-0 at home to wigan days later. Im just really struggling to make sense of where it is i'm going wrong. I love FM, it would be a shame for me to have to give it up now. Help me! Any advice would be great, just let me know if you need any more detail.

Signings - Fellaini from Everton
Jovetic from Fiorentina
Ben Arfa from Newcastle

Play style - Possession football, balanced, attacking/control, high line, fairly narrow , similar to the tactics in the Raikan007 thread. 4-3-3 with wingbacks (gibbs/sagna), 2 centrebacks (Mertersacker/Vermalen) anchor man (fellaini), 2 central mids (arteta/wilshere), 2 IF (Ben Arfa/Carzorla) and a CF (Giroud/Jovetic)

I use a lot of individual instructions, generally passing is short with the odd exception, I leave the wingbacks and centre mids on mixed to extended their range of passing in an attempt to keep the ball moving and possibly open doors further forward.
I have my wingbacks and strike set to hold up the ball.
IF's run from deep often and roam to create space, same goes for striker with regards to the runs from deep.
I have wilshere running from deep fairly often to offer another outlet when trying to penetrate the defence.
No long shots or running with ball.
All the players are currently training PPM's to help with possession retention.

Hope someone out there can help me out.
Cheers.

 

[matranti]

Defensively

Although Gibbs and Sagna are good WB I prefer playing two FB with zonal marking and closing down in own area as I have found that Santon and Simpson were always charging forward to win the ball and Simpson in particular would be skinned every time which would pull Taylor across and the rest you can work out. I'm not sure on Mertersacker stats or Vermaelen but I'll assume the former is quite slow so probably suited to Limited defender or Stopper/Cover and Vermaelen is technically a good player so maybe played better in the Ball Playing Defender role.

Additionally, again I've not checked Fellaini out properly but he might be better off a bit further up the pitch in CM as a box-to-box or plain old CM set to support or attack, and definitely brough back for defending set pieces to mark tall player.

I'd recommend Anita or a player search based on him as he is fantastic and suited to the DM role despite his lack of height. Cost you no more than Fellaini or Jovetic.

Offensively

Running with the ball suits Jovetic/Ben Arfa/Carzorla and possibly Wilshere/Fellaini/Arteta.

Personally I use Ben Arfa on the right as an AP, run with ball often and have him swap position with the AP/IF on my left hand side. In my case it's Ba or Wellington Nem as an IF. It makes it harder for opposition to mark the player as he constantly swaps sides on the attack (it can be countered by instructing the RB / LB to mark the position not the player and a half the AI managers will do so).

Overall

I used to play a short passing game but I seem to get more joy playing a direct game as the intention then focuses on getting the ball to the wide men and the forward. You can adjust the back four to play short but allow the forward three at least to go slightly more direct, adds impetus to the attack (Cabaye and Tiote were a nightmare for me passing between themselves for 80 seconds before being tackled when I had them both set to short passing).

I will keep my DM (in your case Fellaini to a short passing game, that way he wins the ball and plays a simple pass, none of this Hollywood Gerrard ****.

To be honest, your tactics aren't much different to mine in the whole but they can always be tweaked in the aspiration to emulate he unbeatable's. Having been a die hard of the 4-1-2-2-1 / 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 or any other combination of that formation, I've found that on this version of FM I sometimes have to play 4-4-1-1 or 4-1-4-1 to get a result so I'd strongly suggest (if you haven't already) to have two versions of 4-5-1 (an attacking version and a counter version) and a solid 4-4-2 style to see out games for the old 1-0 to the Arsenal. I have spent ages on my tactics this time round as they seem to be they key component of this years game and as much as people harp on about the bugs, I think most of them can be countered by the tactics. Not ideal but a solution nonetheless.

I hope my late night and sadly sober ramblings are of use!

 

[SimonP12]

Try 4-1-3-2 with emphasis on fitness and attacking movement.

Short and quick passes, wide width and also look for players with high stamina and determination as well as individual attributes (i.e. tackling for defender, passing for midfielder,finishing for striker etc.)